The blog & portfolio of Matthew J. Rogers

Hackintosh at 6 months

October 16, 2008

Toward the end of last March, I wrote about how I had ditched my iMac for a self-built Hackintosh. Given the huge cost savings and flexibility you get from a Hackintosh, I field a lot of questions about how well it works and if I’m still glad I did it. I thought after six months, it was time for a follow-up.

Am I glad I did it? Mostly yes, but a few niggles remain. On the whole, the machine runs brilliantly. It’s never kernel panicked or crashed, and with the Core 2 Duo at 2.8 GHz and 4GB of RAM, I can keep all the apps I regularly use open all the time with very little slowdown. I can pack a whole bunch of hard drives into the case, and have the connections necessary for up to two 30″ monitors should I want to connect them — all things that you can normally only do on the $2500+ Mac Pro. For $600, I can’t complain too much.

But I can complain a little. For one thing, the card reader in my Dell monitor has never worked right. This is solved with a separate USB card reader, but it’s another thing to have to hook up. The Line In/Microphone don’t work…which would be a significant problem if I didn’t also have a MacBook Pro for the times I need to Skype or something. And finally, system updates can be a pain. The small updates aren’t a problem, but the big ones (10.5.4, 10.5.5, next up is 10.5.6, etc) will hose your Hackintosh if you just run them straight from Software Update. They require varying degrees of handholding and third-party packages provided by the Hackintosh community, along with some dedication and patience.

So I am glad I tried this project, and it’s working out great for the most part. Will I do it again? Probably not. Ultimately, I’d like to buy a Mac Pro. Another option I’m considering is seeing if I can consolidate my life down to one machine — a MacBook Pro — for simplicity’s sake, which I would just dock at my desk when I needed a larger monitor. The home-based massive file store (2.5+ TB) would return to either a basic Linux server or a Drobo. I could use the home theater Mac Mini to run any secondary tasks (like long downloads) that I can’t leave my MacBook Pro behind for.

That’s very pie-in-the-sky stuff at the moment though, because I’ve never been without a desktop computer to fall back on. And while the simplicity of a single computer appeals to me, insofar as I would no longer have to be constantly moving files around and maintaining two primary machines, the lack of redundancy scares me a bit. So for now, the Hackintosh stays and continues to chug along. I’ve definitely gotten my money’s worth, and if you’re a bit of a computer tinkerer a Hackintosh might work well for you too.

9 comments ›
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9 comments

  • Mack October 19th, 2008 at 5:33 pm

    If I didn’t already own a Mac Pro, I would’ve built a Hackintosh. Want to trade? ;)

  • Matthew October 19th, 2008 at 11:06 pm

    Straight trade? LOL sure, absolutely ;)

    I’ll probably pick up a used Pro at some point. Saw someone selling one for $1600 this week but I’m not ready to buy right now. Maybe next year. I’d be fine with an iMac plus a Drobo if Apple didn’t insist on making the screens like mirrors.

  • Mack October 20th, 2008 at 5:43 pm

    Heh. When Apple releases the Nehalem-based Mac Pros (hopefully around MWSF) that should drive prices on the 2006 model down even further.

  • Robert November 25th, 2008 at 3:19 am

    I initially read your first post on building a hackintosh after months of debating if I wanted to make the jump (all I needed was a new MoBo). After working with a mac mini at work for the last couple months and reading that you didn’t really noticed a performance difference on hackintosh vs legit mac, I deicded to make the jump.

    Though the update issues worry me a little, I’m also not too concerned about waiting for the the osX86 community to get it working. Whats a week or two really considering macs aren’t nearly as vulnerable to attacks as windows (gag vista) machines are.

  • Louis March 10th, 2009 at 11:59 am

    Before I begin… is it stable enough?

    I’m on the fence. New Mac Mini or use my current PC setup. I just built it back in Oct.08 and not sure if my HW is on the HCL in the forums but I think I would be OK with what I have. Just wondering if you still think it was worth it—today? Can you do software (not OS) updates with ease?

    I have a 3ghz C2D, Asus mobo, 4gigRAM, 1.5TB disk, 8800GT GPU, and really thinking I could put together a nice Mac RIG with some effort, I just don’t want to waste my time. I won both Mac’s and PC’s but need an new up to date Mac for my daily use. Just thought I ask since you seem to have it running for some time now.

  • Bob May 26th, 2009 at 1:06 am

    Use Chameleon 2.0RC1 with a retail copy of OS X, install the right kexts, and it will be wonderfully stable.

  • Tom November 30th, 2009 at 1:19 am

    ever heard of efi-x? it makes a perfectly working stable hackintosh! You just install from a retail OSX Disc and thats it! Software Updates wont brick your system either. I have a hackintoshed Dell inspiron 1525 laptop and am looking to build a Desktop Hackintosh And im definitely using an efi-x in it! Check it out. http://art-studios.net/home

    Pretty good eh?

  • Daniel January 3rd, 2010 at 10:42 am

    Hey everyone!,
    Firstly.. Nice Rig Man!!
    I’ve been considering building one for a while now..
    I currently have a 2ghz mac book with 4 gigs of ram which was perfect for me up until i got the adobe CS4 Production premium package and now my machine seems a little wimpy! :P

    I’d like to build a quad core rig but before i spend money on it theres a couple of things im still unsure about..

    Does your bonjour work? (its apples networking protocol which enables printer and file sharing)

    How stable is it? Would it be able to cope with being used constantly (and heavily) with virtual machines and whatnot..

    Has anyone tried lifehacker’s snow leopard method? With the correct hard ware how close to a real mac would this machine..

    Thanks guys!
    Dan

  • Rob Smelik February 11th, 2010 at 11:10 am

    What is the mouse pad that appears in the picture above? It is very cool!

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